Taylor Mays unloads on Pete Carroll

Former USC coach Pete Carroll’s new team needed a safety. Taylor Mays is a former USC safety. But when the Seahawks used their second pick in round one on Thursday night, Carroll didn’t pick Mays.

A full day and 35 picks later, Mays was drafted by the 49ers. And he’s not apparently happy with Carroll, whom Mays thinks wasn’t straight with him.

“Um, it was interesting,” Mays told Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee after being picked by San Fran. “I definitely thought from the relationship we had, the things that he had told me about what I needed to be aware of with the draft process and things that I needed to do, I felt he told me the complete opposite of the actions that he took, which was definitely — it was alarming. . . . I understand it’s a business. But with it being a business, he needs to be honest. And that’s all I was asking for.”

Mays then was asked to elaborate on the reason for his beliefs regarding Carroll. “Just in terms of, I didn’t have anything to worry about, that my game was OK, that my backpeddaling was fine . . . my tackling was fine. It was all things that I asked — what I needed to work on, what I needed to show. I was kind of led to think that I was going to be OK. You know, it is what it is and I’m so happy to be with the 49ers on a team that Ronnie Lott played on.”

Mays also gets to play Carroll twice per year, and Mays seemed to suggest that his new team is in a better position to succeed than Carroll’s.

“I’d rather fall and go to a team where I have a chance of having a
better quality career than go earlier and doesn’t have more of a chance
to win,” Mays said.

Maybe there’s hope that the NFC West can eventually become interesting again.

Maybe if he played the ball, TACKLED people instead of trying to knock them over with a shoiulder, maybe if he could cover in space, maybe if he was better than Thomas, he might be a Hawk. But none of those things hold, so Carroll passed…good for him. Hawks got what may be the best safety in the draft, if not, a very close #2.

Sounds like someone’s a little bitter to me. I guess he can back-peddle pretty well, seeing how he’s trying to hide his disappointment that his old coach didn’t pick him. His comments make it sound like he’s fine being a 49er, but wishes he was somewhere else.

As a Seahawk fan, I know myself and A LOT of other people were worried he would take a run on USC guys, including Mays. When the Hawks picked Earl Thomas, I WAS ECSTATIC. He’s the best safety in the draft in my opinion (Eric Berry is great, just prefer Thomas).
Then we went and drafted Golden Tate who beat Mays for a long TD. God I love this team!

Memo to baby Mays:
If your college coach who spent every practice, game and workout with you for the last 4 years decides to take another person instead of you maybe the person to blame is looking back at you in the mirror!
To paraphrase the old saying “It’s not me, it’s you…”

Hopefully, this isn’t the first person to blow smoke up your butt. Hell, given his record at NE & USC, I wouldn,t put much stock in anything Pete Carroll said. The 49ers are a lot closer to returning to success than the seahawks are to the nearest hotdog stand. Count your blessing with the good lord. Trust me, the Seahawks couldn’t win a portable radio with a raffle ticket.

For all of you guys callin Taylor Mays a premadonna are all people who just crituqe football and have never really played or watched the game. Anyone with half a brain would know that a relationship with a coach and a player is very special. To have your head coach, that has watched you perform over and over, tell you that everything you do is fine and you have nothing to worry about and then pass up on you is very hurtful. This is a guy that has great relationships with his players and now that he goes to the seahawks and is a big boy again and forgets who made him who he is, he can lie to his fellow players. Taylor Mays has every right to be mad. All he wants to do is work on things he needs to and become a better player. This is like a parent telling you that you are great at something but go and watch someone else do it better. I’m glad the 49ers got Mays at #49. He just wants to become great, last time I checked that is the type of person you want on your team and play with.

Hawksfan— gotta say that was one hell of a throw from Clausen to Tate… Right on the money huh… Only problem for Tate now is no more Clausen, now its old a$$ Hasselbeck and his soft a$$, remember this??

I dunno if he’s gonna be good or not, but I kinda think Mays is being misrepresented here.
First, he was ASKED how he felt about his College Coach taking a different Safety. It makes the statement sound different.
Second, he’s not pissed because Carroll didn’t select him. He’s pissed because Carroll made a big deal about him staying in school (and Mark Sanchez for that matter) and that he would be better off and then Carroll jumped to the NFL when the NCAA came calling on USC and then he selected a Safety over Mays in round one who had TWO years of eligability left. SLIGHTLY hypocritical. If you read his comments again threw that lens, the comments make ALOT more sense.
He also doesn’t think Carroll did him any favors in the coaching dept because the USC coaches taught him to constantly go for the kill shot.
Lets be clear. Mays knows the way the world works. He’s not pissed because Carroll didn’t take him, he’s pissed because Carroll is a slime.

Regardless of whether he’s a flake or underachiever, Singletary will be able to do a lot toward developing those considerable physical tools (of Mays) into a significant NFL player. The kid’s got size & speed and he should be getting a lot better coaching than he got at USC. It seems that the USC coaching staff were underachievers in getting the most out of their players. A lot of kids that were # 1 ranked players out of high school & went to USC didn’t seem to flower or develop into the Beasts that they should’ve. Carroll may well be sorry he passed on mays later on down the line. Seattle seems to have done pretty well, though.

we needed a speed safety who can be a ball hawk, thats what earl thomas is mays is just being a little baby cause he got selected in the 2nd round, face it hes not better then thomas. only thing he gots over thomas is hes a hard hitter. RaiderhateR4Life if you want to play that then fine remember this?

Carroll cost Mays millions by convincing him to stay one more year! I would be pissed too. Carroll is selfish if you ask me and only wanted to keep these kids so that he could further his own legacy. At least with NFL coaching now, Mays will prove to be the next Ronnie Lott. Plus Cawk fans better start worring about their own coverage abilities now that we have Ginn Jr. stretching the field for Davis and Crabs. Good luck with that.

Timmy321– I respect that, that was a good come back. However, notice there was no offensive line protecting him? Yeah, I think that’s gunna change real quick with Davis and Iupati. I didn’t want to put that video up, but if Hawks fans are really gunna keep patting golden tate on the butt for a play where a great pass was made deep with only 1 SAFETY covering the entire field, figured I send a reallity check.